Sarasota lifestyle for many families will never be the same once the “F” word enters their lives!
Foreclosure is business! Banks cannot give a damn about children tossed out of their homes....
Foreclosure is ugly.
It’s especially ugly when children are involved.
Not long ago, I still think of the single mom with three kids whose home dropped unnecessarily into foreclosure before I could help them. That house should have sold.
For some unexplained reason, the bank chose to foreclose.
Tess and her husband could not endure the financial storm…they separated and divorced, further darkening that time.
Never did Tess believe she’d lose her children’s father and her children’s home. Throughout, Tess attempted to protect her kids from this darkness, trying to maintain life as usual.
But the kids knew….as is the case, the kids always know when bad times hit home. They know. Tess knew that they knew, and that made it more tragic.
Click Read More now for the loan mod that should’ve worked out!
Sprinting To Short Sale Finish Line
Nationstar told Tess not to make a payment during loan mod application process. Four months passed.
When Nationstar REFUSED to provide an affordable payment (pre-Making Homes Affordable loan mod plan) Tess and her soon-to-be ex-husband asked me to help them short sell the home on which they owed $348,000.
They were four months behind when I agreed to help.
I set the list price at $258,750 (I could justify it as well). Nationstar accelerated foreclosure…the fastest acceleration I’d seen from MANY short sales I’d worked.
Auction date was set for January 18, 2009. We had gotten over 50 showings. Not surprising…great area & “bargain” priced or so the bargain hunters thought.
To justify my list price, I spent hours compiling market research for Nationstar Mortgage, the mega mortgage lender out of Texas.
I’d faxed them the entire short sale package as they requested, but THEY kept misplacing or losing it! Three times I was forced to fax about 69 pages to them with account number at the top of each page. I waited the normal time needed for loss mit to process a file and then began calling for confirmation and assignment of negotiator.
Negotiator assigned and BPO ordered. Supported my list price to BPO agent, who agreed. Sounds good so far, right?
Tick-tock, tick-tock. The foreclosure clock is ticking, but Nationstar doesn’t care about a family trying to avoid foreclosure. They have a bazillion files and bailout money.
Offer arrives….
The price was right for the house, the neighborhood & the local market. I received a solid offer from a solid buyer. Faxed the offer and expected to get offer approved within 30 days.
Hard to believe, isn’t it? 30 days. That’s the short sale world for you. Buyer knew he’d have to wait.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
31 days…no answer. Previous negotiator not on the file any longer. Oh yeah, it’s normal.
Normally, I wouldn’t freak, but the buyer expects a response…definitely, he’s expecting a favorable response, and I’m desperately trying to keep a family out of foreclosure.
Hello, Nationstar Mortgage;
Is anyone home?
No answer. I would not and could not sit still…any longer. In the short sale world, a good realtor walks a fine line between pissing off the bank’s loss mit people and being the sweet squeaky wheel.
Believe me, it’s a challenge for me to be “sweet” at any time let alone when trying to save a family from foreclosure.
Finally, I figured out the bank’s email nomenclature. That is, I needed to know how to contact a decision maker by email since phone and fax gave me NOTHING!
Nationstar Mortgage uses: first name_last name@nationstarmortgage.com.
I then researched the executive branch and began emailing them, telling them I had a full price offer on one of their pre-foreclosure properties.
I kept emailing.
Finally, a VP of Loss Mitigation emailed me, apologizing and letting me know he personally was reviewing the offer and would get back with me. I was impressed. I had to have been one of thousands calling and emailing, as more and more “bad” properties rolled in to Nationstar.
Suddenly, a flurry of activity…lots of different people from Nationstar swooned down on me with questions. I struggled to keep their names or titles straight, but they all were extremely helpful and wanting to get this done.
Note: As Realtors, we get insanely upset when it takes weeks and months to hear back from the Lender re: an offer on a pre- or foreclosed house. Our buyers get upset. Our sellers trying to save some shred of credit get upset. Everybody gets upset. However, from the mortgage lender’s position, they are flat-out overwhelmed and clearly under-staffed. How could they not be under-staffed. Who anticipated this 100-year economic meltdown?
Appraiser Destroys Single Mom’s Hope
Suddenly, Nationstar believes the property was worth more than the BPO in its hands from the BPO agent the bank hired.
Two months go by and Nationstar continues to sit on a full-price offer from a strong buyer who’s putting down 60% cash. Instead of showing anger, I show them proof of value, i.e. solid comps. The buyer provides a full interior appraisal. What more could a bank possibly NEED to prove value?
Unfortunately, Nationstar Mortgage, in its infinite wisdom, foreclosed on Tess’ family instead of accepting a buyer’s 100% full-market offer. A few months later, I sold the house for $22,000 LESS than the initial buyer’s offer during PRE-foreclosure.
During those 2 months, the debt owner had to pay holding/acquisition costs while accepting a LOWER offer. This is short sale reality. Any realtor working short sales will confirm. It’s mind boggling but true.
The Worst Is Not Over, Predict Experts!
Mortgage lenders cannot hire enough loss mitigation staff, or so they claim. Out of necessity, mortgage lenders are telling homeowners in pre-foreclosures to list for 90 days (or longer) before even considering a short sale. Forget “deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure” — most lenders are not accepting properties “deed-in-lieu….”
What’s the solution? Well, here’s one, and I’m certain this proposal will stir the pot and get dismissed automatically as unfair, flippant and even impossible. Impossible? Impossible is what we’re witnessing on Main Street and Wall Street. Flippant is believing this market with right itself. That’s flippant and irresponsible.
Here’s my common-sense approach, clearly lacking any formal finance or economics education:
Adjust mortgage payments and mortgage amounts to today’s prices. Do it NOW! Instead of continued writedowns and economic meltdown, keep people in their homes. Give them a certificate for the difference between their mortgage amount and today’s value (ex: they owe $348,000; today’s value $268,000; certificate $80,000).
Insist they cannot sell for one year unless absolutely necessary. Hence, they receive a credit (certificate) of $80,000. If they sell four years from now and their home’s value has recovered to $338,000, they receive $10,000 credit.
For now, the band-aid is loan modification. It’s a band-aid with a short life span…for sure. Foreclosures will continue despite this band-aid. More children will suffer through these troubled times. Nothing good comes out of a family pushed from its home….
If you or someone you know cannot afford the mortgage payment and the debt owner refuses to work with you on a loan modification, please contact me immediately to discuss your options. A short sale might benefit you, allowing you to walk away to a fresh start and no debt collector chasing you for years to collect the deficiency amount.
Sarasota foreclosures hurt more than the family pushed out of its home. Please comment below. Disagree with me? That’s okay. Get it off your chest. I’m big enough to take criticism. Won’t change my mind, but it might help you. In many posts on my website, have talked about the (emotional) side of foreclosure. Seems to label me a “bleeding heart.” Maybe it does. Kind of hard to blame people who unexpectedly lost their jobs and couldn’t get through the bureaucracy soon enough to save their homes.
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